Museum-goers flock to King Tut exhibit

Published Friday, December 16, 2005

click photo to enlarge

Visitors look at the Coffin of Tjuya during the opening of the King Tut exhibit Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005, at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The exhibit opened its doors at the second of four venues during its 27-month tour of the United States and the only southeast destination. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Renee Brooks drove 13 hours from the hurricane-ravaged Mississippi Gulf Coast. Jimmy Pagan brought his family from Savannah, Ga. Lois and Don Dwyer invited neighbors from Boca Raton and plan to return again and again with other neighbors.

They all converged Thursday on the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale to be among the first to ogle the treasures of Tutankhamun in South Florida, where the "original king of bling" is igniting a bout of Tutmania that's infecting everything from pizza boxes to parades.

Judging from the approving crowds at the opening of "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," the boy king needs little introduction on the second stop of his comeback tour. His name and ethereal visage is as golden as it was when he drew an unprecedented 8 million museum-goers in his first seven-city U.S. blitz that began in 1976.

Just ask Cameron Barry of St. Augustine who at 10 is just one year older than Tut when one of the last pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty ascended the throne for his short reign 3,300 years ago. No slouch in Egyptian history, Cameron marvels that a boy his age commanded an empire and an army, albeit with advisers, before dying at age 19.

"It was pretty cool. He rode into battle. It takes a lot of bravery to do that," Cameron said. "The hardest thing I have to do is pick the right answer to circle on my FCAT."

click photo to enlarge

"The Falcon Collar," the collar wrapped around the neck of Tutankhamun's mummy, is shown at the opening of the King Tut exhibit Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005, at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The exhibit opened its doors at the second of four venues, and the only southeast destination, during its 27-month tour of the United States. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Megan Brooks' fascination with all things Egyptian began at home, which no longer exists. Her house in Pass Christian, Miss., was yanked from its foundation by Hurricane Katrina, forcing the 6-year-old's family into a FEMA trailer.

But when the museum sent Megan's mother an e-mail reminder she had reserved tickets for opening day long before the storm, Renee Brooks, 37, followed through on the purchase.

"I home-school, and what an opportunity (this is) to see what we're studying in books," Brooks said. "Besides, wouldn't you rather look at this than broken pecan trees and mud?"

Her lessons are obviously paying off. Megan didn't hesitate when she spotted the colossal stone statue of Akhenaten, Tut's presumed father who was considered a heretic for introducing a new religion and abolishing the worship of multiple gods.

"That's the pharaoh who worshipped the sun, and made everybody mad," she announced.

That is not to say that adults were not equally mesmerized. Many saw Tut on his first tour, and couldn't wait for the encore. Others have been waiting to make amends for more than a quarter-century.

"I didn't go in the '70s, and I always sort of kicked myself for that," said Nadine Smeyne, 61, a retired judicial assistant who lives in Boca Raton. "I was chomping at the bit to get here."

Thanks to the museum's staggered ticketing system, she didn't have to wait long once she did arrive.

Tickets are sold in advance for a specific date and time, and more than 300,000 already have been claimed.

Egyptologists and museum curators, who are counting on selling 100,000 more before the exhibit ends in April, say the key to Tut's allure is more about mystery than science, more about a good yarn, than, well, bling.

From the moment British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings 83 years ago, news of his find reverberated around the world, and never quit.

Not only was the tomb intact, but the treasures were glorious, and the mysteries of his life and death enormous -- and unresolved. Add a mummy to the mix, and public fascination was piqued, and never satiated.

"The obvious answer is the gold, but it has all these other elements that make the story so interesting," said Irvin Lippman, executive director of the Fort Lauderdale museum, which has quintupled its membership since becoming one of only four sites to snag the exhibit.

"It was an amazing discovery -- the first intact tomb. He was a boy king, and why he died young is a mystery. Put it all together and it's a story that has kept the world's attention."